Power Clean

[dawson]

Rip, just got the 2nd ed of SS and the improvements to it are nice.

My problems with the PC center around the jump and since I'm still having problems nailing it I was reviewing the book's discussion on it again. On page 192 you mention using the bar contact on the thigh, how it can be used as a cue according to where the red mark from the bar is on your thigh. On page 194 you then discuss banging the bar on the thigh, this is not good of course. So, just how hard should one be impacting the thigh with the bar for it to be acceptable?

Thanks...

[Mark Rippetoe]

It just touches the thigh on the way up, as an artifact of the jump. The touch will be palpable to you.

[juicysweet]

Hitting the bar has to be done with correct timing and placement. If you are aggressively jumping where you should be there is brief contact right as you explode upward. This is very different than trying to shove your thighs forward to hit the bar and causing the bar to fly out away from your body. The latter case is often accompanied by a too early jump that makes all of this much much worse.

s.

[Andrew48]

Yeah when i power clean I tend too smack my thighs against the bar to give it and extra push up before i go to catch the bar on the bottom of the clean. I find this method very useful and many times I can hit a higher weight than usual if it is done correctly. I don't think I would be able to hit a weight higher than 300 if I don't use my thighs. Do you guys use this method as well?

[Mark Rippetoe]

The thigh touch is a cue for the second pull, and it's very hard to clean anything heavy without doing it.

[dawson]

I'm working on, no, I've corrected my problem with touching the bar with the thigh during the jump by using Rip's cue to "touch the shirt with the bar". It works exactly as he says it does by causing you to focus on the end result effort of the PC and by doing so it clears up a bunch of issues that may develop prior to this point in the movement. It is a great focal point for the entire movement, so, "touch the shirt with the bar"!!! And, "finish the pull"!!!